“Precluded from your dominion”: law, citizenship, and migration in early modern England c.1540-c.1625

Despite the fact that there was no “immigration system” in early modern England, migrants were subject to significant “internal” borders. This paper will explore the substantial body of law - common law, statute, and prerogative instruments - the governed migrants in England. This paper will also examine the responses of migrants and subjects to legal restrictions and possibilities. Exploring legal sources and texts sheds important new light on the experiences of early modern migrants to England. At the same time, reconstructing the legal status of migrants enables us to better recover rights and responsibilities that adhered to English subjects. 


Kathleen Commons is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield.